in ascending order: society, death, and freedom
by and break onetwothreefourfive
Summary: can any of it possibly not be gratuitous?


**title**: in ascending order: society, death, and freedom  
**author**: eithne  
**disclaimer**: not mine; not yet  
**rating**: pg13; some cursing.  
**summary**: can any of it possibly not be gratuitous?

•

it could be a version of her he can tolerate: addict cameron. and meth, of all things; she's probably tweaked out of her mind somewhere, taking apart all the electronics in her apartment. he's not quite sure how to react, or go about reacting, to this new _thing_, and it's funny because he's not one to consider reactions. he's half hard but it's not her; his brain gets him off, knowledge is sexy, especially when it's his, and a logical conclusion to a raze of cameron's reputation is mental masturbation for him. he grins like a fucking idiot and reclines a little further, playing his fingers over the handle of his cane. he closes his eyes. first on the menu: her career.

1  
**dr. allison (pathetic sympathetic) cameron**

she's good at what she does when she doesn't act herself. but, most people don't deal with druggie doctors; they've got a hang up, or something. so. will her recreational and professional overlap? working thirty hours straight, hands a trembling and brain activity a dwindling until she gets her next fix? will she steal from the hospital and its employees or patients? pawn her size four wedding dress, bend over just a little more and to the left, for another session of body altering, mind numbing, and the days just flew by and there is no catching up with them. huh. he'll have to come back to that intriguing unpleasantness.

(house pops a vicodin. he is unaware of the parallels now drawn.)

2  
**let's get physical**

no, _really_. she takes decent care of herself. he's all but memorized her body through its clothes. blouses, vests, and slacks; how fabric hangs on her frame, regardless of the cut, it's all clean lines and no bulging tendencies. small but solid, she's complete and contained; drugs will ruin her anatomy (her stance & her gait & her killer backhand & osteoporosis already presents earlier in women_ v_. men) and not in that funny stumbling, mumbling, fumbling, mental facilities crumbling way (that's, FYI, earned a few oscars).

(an aside: as a logical person, it only makes sense that his thought processes are occasionally rhythmic. what? well. because. t.s. eliot and oscar wilde, regardless of his legal trouble, knew that words have a rhythm. it's scientific, rational, mathematical; the general populous doesn't discount the golden ratio or fibonacci's sequence. house likens his thoughts to waves, the sea as his metaphor and insane ideas presented calmly. _moving on_.)

3  
**etc., et al., (other abbreviated latin phrases)**

can she, dependant now on methamphetamines and their effects (euphoria, hyperactivity, a sense of invulnerability), ever be truly free? theoretically, realistically, philosophically—that one's good.

AN APARTMENT DECORATED IN BANALITY IS WHERE SHE LAYS HER SCENE

GENERIC EXISTENTIALIST: saying that dr. cams is free is to say that she can and often will act in such a way as to render her behavior unpredictable. a person cannot use science to determine freedom; the validity of their conclusions depends on the validity of their assumptions, among which is the premise: man is not free.

GENERIC SCIENTIST: past successes in predicting human behavior show the validity of said assumptions, methods, and consequently the premise that man is not free.

GENERIC EXISTENTIALIST: what scientist can predict that shakespeare would write romeo & juliet or that OMGWTF!1 will become a nationally recognized language (O RLY?). past successes in predicting human behavior rarely concern moments important to the individual or the predictions have come about so slowly and with such a low probability that it's barely a guess.

GENERIC SCIENTIST: (smiles nervously) i can recite pi to thirty-three places. while at the same time standing on one leg, touching my index finger to my nose and patting my head.

GENERIC EXISTENTIALIST: WINS AT LIFE

END SCENE

house snorts. philosophy is for idiots and people who want to guarantee unemployment after graduating from college. all it does is start with something so obvious, not even worth mentioning, and end with paradoxes in knots as statements that nobody will understand.

(it's mostly stacy's fault, he thinks, because she won't admit she wants him. it occurs to him that she might've had some work done; ever since she came back her eyebrows have been arched in irritation and it's been a few weeks now.)

back to cameron, he's not sure what to make of any of it. she fucked chase, so she's got to be on drugs or out of double As. nah, she uses her hands to get off; she's got gorgeous fingers. and she could have hiv/aids, probably not, though.

this entire 'possible life threatening disease and somewhat spontaneous sex and risky behavior' reeks of television's number one drama story arc. it's ridiculous how upset people have gotten. but him? he knows it'll be fine by next week.


End file.
